I do not support violence. But I suppprt even less a proto fascist who keep (his money made thanks to the mafia, like his protector Craxi) in offshore banking. He went to power to protect his interests, and spits on the Constitution, and create this climate of facism and abuses Italians who disagrees with him.
I expect his coalition partners to quit the government and let him drop or else follow his fate.
I do not underestimate the power of this extremely dangerous man.
It is difficult to refrain from praying God to take him out of his troubles.
I am also troubled by his cronies immediately reporting Mr Tartaglia as mentally deranged, even though he may be the first of a larger group wanting a change no matter what.

Although political allies and supporters of Silvio Berlusconi are going to portray the recent attack on the Prime Minister as a result of the culture of hatred being spread by his political opponents or a left wing judicial system out to get him, the Prime Minister and most politicians in Italy are however the most responsible group liable for the poisonous political climate and the use of violence for political gain in Italy. Ironically, for Silvio Berlusconi, the date and location of his attack in Milan happened one day after the 40th anniversary of the fist terrorist attack by extreme right wing political parties in Italy, which killed 17 innocent people and injured an additional 100 people. Located in Milano in almost the exact same area as the Piazza Fontana terrorist bombing 40 years earlier, the personal attack on Silvio Berlusconi may be the Greek god Nemesis, visiting Silvio Berlusconi for his past involvement and support of political violence in Italy.

Anyone with a fundamental understanding of contemporary Italian history should remember that the political establishment in Italy has long used violence as a political tool. The most prominent example of the use of violence for political gain was the Strategy of Tension in the 1970s by the prominent political party in Italy the Christian Democratic Party and the former neo-fascist political party Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI). The former leader of the MSI, Gianfranco Fini, is a current member of the Berlusconi government, and will most likely be the next Prime Minister of Italy due to the political composition of Italian politics.
In the Strategy of Tension campaign, the extreme center right political parties supported by a secret Masonic lodge, known as P2, which contained several high-ranking government officials in the secret services, national police and wealthy members of society like Silvio Berlusconi, conducted three well-known terrorist operations in Italy. With the goal of blaming center left political dissidents for the terrorist attacks, the members of the secret Masonic lodge in addition to members of the extreme right wing political parties were worried that the communist party in Italy was gaining too much political power and that an over throw of the government would protect the interests of the status quo powers in Italy.

The Piazza Fontana bombing in Milano Italy at the Nationale dell’ Agricoltura (National Bank of Agriculture) just a short distance away from the site of the attack on Silvio Berlusconi on Sunday was the Italian extreme right wing’s and secret Masonic lodge P2 fist attempt at a coup d’etat in Italy. In addition to killing 17 people and wounding another 100 mainly farmers and tradesman in their weekly visit to the bank, an additional two other bombs went off in Rome wounding an additional 18 people. Although the President of Italy at the time President Saragat wanted to declare a state of public emergency, and would have led to future elections favoring the extreme right, Aldo Moro opposed the move. Showing the same moral courage and respect to a pluralistic democratic society for which he would later be betrayed for by his own friends in the government in 1978, Aldo Moro stood up to the proponents of violence and fear.

In addition to the Piazza Fontana bombing, the extreme right wing with the certain support of the secret Masonic lodge members conducted two additional terrorist attacks in the 1980s, killing an additional 98 innocent people. These attacks included the bombing of the main train station in the center left stronghold of Bologna, Italy killing over 82 innocent people, and later a bombing of a train in transit between Florence and Rome killing 16 innocent people. Demonstrating the utter contempt for protecting the very people they are responsible to protect and the depraved behavior of some members of the Italian right wing political parties, the train bombing in 1984, was conducted by the Neapolitan mafia clan the Camorra and supported by right wing political members of the government. The collusion between the mafia in Italy and Italian politics is well known and is perhaps the best well-known dirty little secret of a major European power.

With this addition information, the attack on Silvio Berlusconi will undoubtedly fuel the pages of behindologists, people seeking dark and intriguing explanations for public political events such as when a major mafia member is captured in Sicily or people who believe nothing happens in Italian politics by accident. Due to the decades long political collusion of the Sicilian mafia with several high ranking government officials such as seven time Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, to the political assassination of Aldo Moro for his willingness to bring the Communist Party of Italy into a governing coalition, the history of Italy is littered with numerous examples of political violence.

I was told by many italian friends before that Berlusconi is the most powerful mafia in the state.
Be it ture or not, Italy ranks the last in G7 in terms of economic development and social reform. It is as what looks like before he took office and aftermath. He is just as stupid as many leaders in the world. However people still could have better life in spite of those silver-tongued liers if there is a stable and fair system.
May god bless Italy and forgive such a poor old geezer.

Despite my lack of support for Mr. Berlusconi - the person, not his political ideals - I fully condemn the incident and feel sorry for the victim and all Italians.

Still, I am very surprised nobody has drawn any parallels with Wolfgang Schaeuble, Anna Lindh or Olof Palme. Just because they were decent people and politicians? Or because they were not clowns and therefore not so much in the public eye? Or are people's memories so short, they can no long remember the assassinations of two worthy Swedes and the attempted murder of another worthy German?

I think the article is completely not neutral, it is supposed a journalist should try to be objective in writing an article, giving all the necessary information to let people able of making and elaborating owns point of view .
I don't think this article fullfill this core element of working as a journalist. For example, it is mentioned the group on facebook pro Tartaglia, on the other hand are not mentioned the several groups claiming in favour of Berlusconi. More important is not taken in consideration that Italy is a free and democratic country, the actual president has been elected (even without my vote)with the majority of the votes.
This is not just about the president, it's about the whole country and about the sacred concept of democracy.
I don't like Berlusconi, but if we take a picture if Italy right now what are we going to see?
Who can be a good substitude for him? who can do something better? If you look carefully you just see there is no effective and subtantial alternatives. You can just find people good in complaining about the work of the others without concrete suggestions to improve the current situation.
Concluding, absolutily this is not the case of be sarcastic about what happened, we are still talking about a 73 years old man (even if sometime stupid as a 20 years old young boy); so please try to be more respectfull. If something like that happened to Obama I would like to see what you had been written.

"In April 1945 Benito Mussolini was shot dead and trucked to Piazza Quindici Martiri in Milan. There, Mussolini's body and the body of his mistress were thrown into the piazza and then hanged upside down on meat hooks."

Yes, it happened and that is the point, what are Mussolini and Berlusconi similarities. I would say that both promoted the increasing of hatred at their respective times. First hatred against minorities and political dissidents and later against themselves as a reaction.

See Berlusconi just as victim of an act of violent intolerance is not correct. One should remember that he is also an intolerant who made his own victims, like Gypsies, for example. The attack against him shows the downgrade of Italian politics, OK, but Berlusconi is exactly the greatest responsible for that situation. He should spend the time in hospital thinking about Mussolini's life and fate.

Frankly, I would not do the same Tartalia did, but I also can not feel solidarity neither for Berlusconi nor for Mussolini.

The strong feeling of hate prevailing in Italy comes down to one person, Berlusconi and his fascist-like desire to make Italy become subject to his will. The current climate is poisonous and he is responsible for instigating this through his bellicose rants and threats and abusive use of his media might.
Italy will now see him use this act as a way of ensuring sympathy will pour down on him and also as an excuse to drive through ad personum laws to favour himslef and his ilk.
Rome burns and the emperor has no clothes....

No matter if you like Berlusconi or not, Italy is a working democracy with perfect oportunities for a democratic flip of power, violence is not the answer. Berlusconi is running a commission of trust given to him by the people of Italy.
Instead of making him a martyr through violence, the opponents should be politically active and point out mistakes he makes and turn peoples opionons.
Mark my words - Berlusconi will turn this event into his benefit. I am sure of it. He might suffer now but in a couple of months, he will be the one who's winning.

while a physical assault is undoubtedly wrong, equally wrong are the attempts of his supporters to put the blame of the fact over berlusconi's harsh - but certainly not advocating violence - political opponents, thus attempting a call for the end of all critics against the politician and the man. also, it is appalling that a party who openly advocated violence, like the Lega party leader U.Bossi which in the last months repeatedly talked about armed men and kalashnikov rifles ready for use and possible secessions and civil wars, now accuses his opponents, or you'd better call them enemies, of being the ones which brought us into this hatred. not to mention the outrageous contempt and personal persecutions shown and made by berlusconi for and to the parliament, the judges, the free press,his political foes, the President, the constitutional courts, the protesters, everybody who clogged his way willing or not. so if they ask us to condemn violence it is all right; but if then they want to put the blame of this tension on us, those who deprecate the politics of mr. berlusconi, well this time they got too far.

Well, I think all of us knew that something of that sort would happen sooner or later...and in spite of the shocking image of an old man bleeding with his perfectly dentistry damaged, I can't feel much sympathy for him I'm afraid. I adore Italy as a culture and as a country, but I think the average Italian man is far more insane than the agressor...as Berlusconi era seems endless. How can that be explained? Lack of leadership in the opposition? Berlusconi is a national embarassment. I would be ashamed of him as my president. Oh, please, move on !

It is a shame that it is taken so lightly. It will tend to make leaders even more distant from the people if they can expect to have things thrown at them by weirdoes and malcontents. The irony is that real despots are immune to such things. Even most insane people know what they could expect if they flung something at Putin, Ahmadinejad or Hugo Chavez.

Those 20k people who signed up on the Facebook should think about what it means to have a violent insane man as their representative. They are lucky to live in a free country and they might recall that as they play their silly game.

The ambiguity of the left on the use of violence in politics has been confirmed even this time: Simply have a look at many of the previous posts.. Sadly I agree with Pansa: the left will never change. It's in their DNA. They really can't see how similar to fascists they are.

Sir,
I wish I had some compassion left for Silvio Berlusconi, but after 15 years of his trite arguments, I can't find any. Apparently the assult wasn't politically-motivated, but several people I've heard today on the streets of my Italian city told me they were sad because our PM had only been wounded by the guy.

Anyway, Berlusconi didn't come out pretty, and the circumstances were almost surreal. His ever-smiling face was hit with a model of Milan's Cathedral, home to the 'Madunina', the most classic of Milan symbols. That happened while he was in his own Northern Italian fiefdom, surrounded by his own militia. A sign of changing times perhaps?
ViPer

If there are no political persecutions from judges and the accusations therefore are based on solid proof of B criminal behaviour I am the first to admit that we are living in an ill democracy. If the persecutions are politically manouvred by judges we are living also in an ill democracy. Which one is worse ?

No matter whether one agrees or not with any politician’s policies there is NO justification whatsoever for this kind of attack against a democratically elected (and re-elected, and re-elected) leader.

Seeing how a few prominent opposition politicians, and several of the comments here, try to explain away and somehow justify this appalling assault shows how Berlusconi was correct when he famously called them: “Turisti della democrazia/Tourists of democracy”. In fact they show they are “only visiting…”

Democracy calls for elections and respecting those views you do not agree with… but too many people who until recently idolized the “hammer and sickle” are still "only visiting" and their mindset has not changed.

Sir,
even under these traumatic circumstances in appears evident the haste that the Economist correspondent bears against Mr Berlusconi.
Rest assured that 1, 100 or 20 thousand idiots do not represent the honest, laborious, intelligent, yet silent majority of Italians. For every imbecile that may be rejoicing for the dramatic event of last night there are hundreds or rather thousands of Italians across all the political spectrum which are genuinely saddened for what happened to our prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Sadly from reading the Economist no such compassion emerges by the author of the article.